ghosthunters

What the Season's About: This season chronicles the lead-up to the buxom blonde trio's flight from the Playboy coop. While we now know that Kendra and Bridget landed their own series, we will always remember their time in the mansion -- even if Hef doesn't.

Why You Should Check It Out: It's the last season that features Bridget, Holly and Kendra as Hef's girlfriends. While there is a season 6 in the works with all new Hef gal pals, the chemistry between these three will be hard to match.

'South Park'(10PM, Comedy Central) 13th season premiereMatt Stone and Trey Parker, where have you been?!

The 'South Park' papas return for a well-timed dose of irreverent humor, and they've chosen wisely for their first target of the new season: The Jonas Bros. and their infamous purity rings. In South Park, it's Kenny and his new girlfriend who get the chastity rings when the K-Man takes his new lady to a Jonas Bros. concert in hopes of scoring ... big points with her.

Meanwhile, if teen dreams are the topic, we have hopes there'll be a Miley Cyrus joke or two somewhere in the mix also, though the mere potential of orange-coated Kenny trying to get his swerve on is more than enough reason to tune in.

If you can't get enough of Ghost Hunters, then the Sci Fi Channel is ensuring that you'll never be able to get enough of it.

The network is expanding the popular paranormal reality show into "dozens of hours of programming" with renewals of some current spin-offs and pick-ups of even more spin-offs. At the rate they keep spinning this show off, it's going to have its own family tree by the end of the decade.

Right now there's the original Ghost Hunters and its international cousin, the cleverly named Ghost Hunters International. Both of those will return next season with new episodes.

Those are a few of the well-storied curses the E! folk explore in this special, which also includes scoop on the alleged Billy Bob Thornton Curse (several of his co-stars have died untimely deaths, including Bernie Mac, J.T. Walsh, John Ritter and the aforementioned Ledger) and the so-called Curse of James Dean's Car.

Well, this was probably inevitable. With the success of A&E's Paranormal State hanging over the heads of the SciFi Channel, the network has given a thumbs-up to a new Ghost Hunters pilot that will join the original as well as Ghost Hunters International and Ghost Hunter Babies. All right, there is no such thing as Ghost Hunter Babies, but it would be a good idea. Think about it for a moment -- the babies would literally be peeing and pooping in their pants when they saw or felt something ghost-like rather than just saying that they did.

The new pilot is called Ghost Hunters: College Edition. In this edition the hunters would be, you guessed it, college students. Instead of teaming up and performing investigations on their own -- like they do on Paranormal State -- these students would team up with professional investigators to examine claims of paranormal events across the globe. In other words, look for some cross-overs between this show and its two older siblings.

I understand that Ghost Hunters is one of the SciFi Channel's hits, but isn't the network heading towards the point of saturation by adding a third series? With three series you begin to parse out smaller and smaller groups of viewers to each show, which brings down the popularity of the original. Something to think about, network executives, when you decide on giving a green light to Ghost Hunters: The Animated Series.

I haven't even gone to get my badge yet, where I hear from Cinematical that there's lots of goodies to have, and lookee here -- Sci Fi stuff! The fine folks over at Sci Fi Channel were nice enough to drop off a ginormous purple bag full of loot, like the Raider model above; t-shirts, breath mints, temporary tattoos ...

During the panels for the Sci Fi shows present at Comic-Con this year, we're being given a unique opportunity to have you, our readers, ask questions to the panelists. What shows are we attending and who will be there? Here's the rundown:

Use the comment form below to submit your questions and we'll give the best ones to the moderator to ask. We'll post the answers to those questions and others as soon as we can get to a WiFi hotspot and post away. You've got until this Thursday morning to send in your questions, so ask away!

Friends telling you Lost is the best thing since sliced bread? Everyone laughing at you at work because you're lost when they talk about that wacky island? Don't know who Jack, Kate and Sawyer are and whether or not John Locke is more than just some old dead philosopher? Ridiculed for being a Lost-less moron but too cheap of a bastard to go out and pick up those DVD sets? Well, good news.

Rarely does a show hit television that's so serialized it's almost impenetrable to come late into. And even more rarely does a network let it last past ten episodes; FOX'll yank it in one if they think they can get enough videos of aquatic life attacking compiled in time for a special. Well, never fear ... it's Sci Fi to the rescue!

It's not often that I write up about an episode of Ghost Hunters, but this one was quite different than the rest. Unfortunately I'm not talking about something spectacular the GH team caught on video or a wild EVP recording.

During the second half of the 'Widow's Watch' episode, Grant, Jason and crew headed out to the Moss Beach Distillery in Moss Beach, California, to investigate reported sightings of a mysterious "Blue Lady" ghost. Spencer Gray, the exec chef at the restaurant, gave the team a hammy tour of the place, pointing out the various places where sightings and sounds had been reported.

I don't keep a very close eye on weekly ratings, especially for cable shows, so it was sort of a surprise to me that Ghost Hunters is listed as one of Sci Fi's "most watched shows" -- not because it's not good, but because I don't know anyone who watches it besides myself. In fact, I've been calling it a "guilty pleasure" all this time.

GH has gotten a lot better these past couple of seasons (it's currently in its fourth season), getting rid of all of the hokey drama that I'm near certain drove lead hunter Jason Hawes crazy. Viewers didn't want to see that crap; we wanted more of the supernatural and the science. These guys film in my neck of the woods of New England all the time, and I'm dying to get to ride along some day to report back on what it's like. Some day ...

That time of year is upon us once again! The days are getting shorter, the nights are getting colder, and your local Wal-Mart/Target/Dave's Discount Depot is filled to the gills with delightfully sweet treats for children and adults alike. Of course, I'm talking about Christmas. Yes, that wonderful holly, jolly holiday that brings smiles and good cheer to everyone. That special time of year where . . .

We've already mentioned that Battlestar is moving to Sundays on January 21st. It will be joined by the highly anticipated new series The Dresden Files. Now comes word that Sci Fi Friday's will return in April with the final ten episodes of Stargate, the continuation of the current season of Atlantis, and the new show Painkiller Jane. The press release also mentions new episodes of Ghost Hunters, the new season of Who Wants To Be A Superhero?, and 24 'pulse-pounding' original movies.

It's good to have a date for the Stargate return, but i am among those that just doesn't get what Sci Fi is doing with their scheduling. TV Squad reader Mack pointed out that the new Atlantis episodes are already airing in other markets, and a quick check of some torrent sites reveals that they are out there to be had. I didn't like the long break in the season when they did it with Farscape, and I don't like it now. With the serial nature of these shows, big breaks just don't work. 24 got it right.

I've been a fan of Ghost Hunters since the early part of the first season. My brother told me there was this show based in New England where a team of people investigate hauntings, but rather than trying to prove they're real, they try to debunk them. Oh yeah, and the two main guys -- they're plumbers. Living in New England myself, it interested me more.

When it's this time of year, with Halloween right around the corner I get the itch for this sort of show, so I was pretty happy to get to get an early look at the first two episodes of the new season this past week. I was also hoping that problems I'd had in the past were addressed this go around. Thankfully it seems everything has improved.

The Sci-Fi Channel has always treated me well by managing to air zombie flicks
right when I'm in a Romero mood and having a show about plumber-by-day ghostbusters (so what if I like Ghost
Hunters?). And now, my dear, dear Sci-Fi Channel is going to start airing Doctor Who. Flippin' sweet
indeed. Starting in March, the channel will begin airing the Christopher Eccleston (9th Doctor) version of the cult
classic. Not much news on whether or not they'll air the David Tennant (latest) version yet but, according to the
article, the channel has an "option". I'm assuming they'll gauge the response to the Eccleston version before
deciding on anything else? Well, no matter because, finally, the Doctor is coming! Woooo-Who! Alright, that's
enough out of me. I'll shut up now before I make some dated "Exterminate!" jokes.